Fallout 3  West Coast
by Steve Hawkins
Summary: "One can survive everything nowadays, except death, and live down anything, except a good reputation." The Lone Wanderer is now a powerhouse of the Capital Wasteland, at the age of just twenty, he has more power than anyone.  Or does he?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, reviewers. I decided, after reading ten stories from other people, that there was some great points of their stories, and some bad points as well. So, I have made up my mind that I'm going to write my own, and put my neck on the chopping block.****"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt" came to mind, but I am going to stick this up anyway. Please review, rant, rave, scream, insult, propagate or quote to your hearts' content, but nothing **_**too **_**rude? Thanks in advance!**

_P.S I am not going to lie, I will be taking my time to do the updates (around week each) and I am not planning on rushing it. So, bad news, slow updates. Good news, I am not posting anything short (nothing less than 500 words, every update aimed at 1000 minimum._

_Hello, Capital Wasteland! Because One Dog's not enough, and Two is too low, It's me, Three Dog! Arooo! Now, time for some news. Alive? Yes. Still wandering? Uh huh. One of the most powerful individuals in the Capital Wasteland? You bet your bobby socks, Susie. I'm talkin' about the kid from Vault 101. Just 19, and this cat/babe has been in some serious shit. And there ain't no sign o' stoppin'! Kid from the vault, if you're listening, I want you to know that you are, truly, a Paradigm of Humanity. Keep on fighting, man/girl! And now for you other faithful listeners, here's an update on our friend. _

_ I've got some interesting news for you. You know that Lone Wanderer? The one who destroyed the Enclave at Adam's Air Base and Raven Rock? The guy who brought fresh, clean water to the wastes? He who saved Reilly's Rangers from a grizzly death, saved Brian Wilkis in grayditch, stopped the superhero wannabes at Canterbury Commons and helped out a talking tree I told you all about? How about the guy who killed the ghouls trying to get into Tenpenny Tower, Killed all the residents of Seneca station, and programmed the robots at Big Town to follow his command? That Wild Child? Well, I've got some news about him, and that bit of news is two letters long. Happy Twentieth! That magic Two Zero, and he's managed to pull off all kinds of shit. Well, he and his mercenary compadres. Hey, this very model of apathy is really pulling off his birthday with a bang. You'd think he would rest on his birthday? Oh, no! He said to me that he's going to get rid of the Super Mutants! All of them! Can you believe it? I sure can't! Not for free, anyway. Those Brotherhood cats must have shit loads of caps to buy that guy's aid._

I turned off the radio from my pip-boy. Three Dog was ranting for over twenty minute before I finally got bored of hearing about my amazing deeds.

"Another Day in the Capital Wastes." I reloaded my gun, a sniper rifle, on top of the Washington monument.

BANG

"Yeah, yeah, kid. Another day you make me sit up here as you shoot down those bastards." Replied Jericho. The large man with the devil-may-care attitude was sitting to my right, with a cigarette to fight off the super mutants.

BANG

Another shot rang off, and a super mutant fell to the floor. Clearing the bunkers again took some work, especially with the overlords around the area, but the Lone Wanderer was used to it.

_ Lone Wanderer, _I thought to myself. A name that stuck to me, a name that everyone knew me by, a name that I detest, a name I hate, a name… that describes me perfectly.

After I wiped out the enclave, destroying their bases in raven rock and Adam's Air base, I went back to the brotherhood, my home away from home. There, I was greeted with the casual news that super mutant activity had increased, but so has the brotherhood. This meant a huge garrison was sent to defend the Washington memorial, as well as a garrison just as large sent to the Capitol Building, set to take out the last super mutants in downtown DC. After the sieges around the radio tower, and the countless attacks on the patrols, finally some revenge, as a final siege, by almost forty brotherhood knights and nearly a hundred initiates and militia to purge the super mutants, All in charge of the Lone Wanderer, or as I have now dubbed myself, "_The Merc of the Wastes"_.

I reloaded my custom victory rifle. Pulled back the freeloader, forcing a bullet into the barrel of the gun. A super mutant spotted me in my tower. I pulled the butt plate towards my shoulder. The Super mutant roared. I aimed down the sight. Breathed in.

BANG

The man behind me fired a single shot from his .44 scoped magnum revolver. Hitting the gun of the super mutant straight out of his hand, Mr Burke smiled. In a winterized combat armour suit, with tortoiseshell glasses, the man is a dedicated servant of Alistair Tenpenny. That is, he was, until someone was hired by a ghoul in Underworld to take him out, and a single bullet to the head later, he was hired by me for a modest fee.

BANG

A shot rang out from my sniper rifle, into the super mutant's head. The beast bent down, clutching his head. I quickly reloaded my sniper rifle methodically, making sure no more super mutant patrols were in the area. The last super mutant in sight recovered from his wound, looking around, trying to spot me. I held my grip on the gun tightly, looked back down the scope.

The super mutant crumpled down to the floor. _Another mutie to add to the kill count_. Silence progressed uncomfortably, as we waited for noise over the radio. The four of us waited for the crackle of the radio to spring into life.

The fourth member of our group was a silent ghoul bodyguard called Charon. Constantly bound by his contract to his owner, he was brainwashed some time in his life to follow the orders of his owner. Still with morals, evident of the owner of the ninth circle's head, he follows me without question, going into the purifier to start the irradiated machine in, fending off a horde of feral ghouls in Fort Constantine, even tackling a super mutant raiding party on his own when my weapon broke. He helped me out of a lot of difficult situations.

Eventually, I got tired of waiting, and decided I shall have to call in. I picked up the radio, and started speaking into the microphone.

"Hello, this is Team Merc reporting. The muties are downed, I repeat, the muties are down. Waiting for support. Over."

"Team Merc, this is Team Lincoln, we are on standby, waiting for The Initiate's signal, over."

"Damn Initiates are slow to do fuck all. We've got most of them in place, and all the militia are in place. I just hope you know what you're doing. Over."

"Alright. We are moving in, right now. After this, we can all get a rest knowing the DC Ruins are clean. With Vault 87 destroyed by the Talon Company, and the destruction of Germantown, all that is left of the super mutants is that of the ones in the bunker, and some strays around DC. We can all get a day off after this, over."

Charon, Burke, Jericho and I all went down the tower, into the entrance to the bunkers. With all the super mutants either dead or inside, the initiates moved around, to prepare an assault on the series of tunnels. We moved in with Lyon's Pride, and prepared to assault the first bunker. Sentinel Lyons greeted our party, as we prepared to move in.

"The Lone wanderer." Sentinel Lyons said, slowly and spitefully. She hated the fact that I wanted money. She said I was always treading on people to get the best deal, and it will catch up to me. I know she's wrong ; it won't catch up to me.

"Sentinel. Let's just move into the bunker, clear out the super mutants, and then I can finally get away from you and your real soldiers."

"Why do you choose to constantly anger us? We have done nothing but help you, yet –" Lyons started.

[Karma]"Stop it. You don't like me, and I don't like you. Let's just clear these soldiers out from this bunker, and then we can get on our way to finish all of this, once and for all. We have both lost a lot to these mutants, and it is time we stop them. For good."

Lyons glared back at me. Suppressing a laugh, I pulled out my weapon of choice; a faded chinese assault rifle, with xuanlong etched down the side of it, and an extended barrel with a steel butt plate.

"You really should be using a better gun than that rusty thing." Criticised a member from Lyon's Pride. I turned, to see who it was.

"Paladin Glade, I suppose you'd prefer me to use a gatling laser? Or maybe a missile launcher?" I replied, jokily. A smile crept across Paladin Glade's face.

"Not really, I was thinking more along the lines of a Fat Man." He replied, trying to hide his smile, losing that battle.

"Ha. You're probably right, though. I might have to bring out Eugene from retirement." I put my rifle on my back, and turned to Charon. The faithful ghoul manservant passed me a giant minigun, given to me as payment for helping Reilly's Rangers.

"Alright, we all ready?" No response. I breathed in. "OK, let's go!" I shouted, and charged through the door foot first.


	2. Chapter 2

**OK, hello again. This update just reaches the 800 word mark (ignoring this bit of writing), but there is a few hundred more words added to the first post. Namely, the radio broadcast of Three Dog, which, I am hoping, sets the scene better! Post whatever you like, as your criticism will go towards my updates.**

_P.S I am not going to lie, I will be taking my time to do the updates (around week each) and I am not planning on rushing it. So, bad news, slow updates. Good news, I am not posting anything short (nothing less than 500 words, every update aimed at 1000 minimum._

"Commander," Said a gravelly voice, into a small radio box, connected to a larger one on a table, with three dead brotherhood members lying next to it. "We kill many humans, but many of us dead. Need more. More!" The green overlord started envisioning an army of mutants dropping down from the sky, as a large force of mutants armed with those sticks that shoot pain… No! Those huge sticks which spin and shoot pain to anything in front of him, with the twenty foot tall mutants holding the deathsticks. All the time shouting more down the transmitter.

"Soldier. Soldier! Get a grip. We need you to hold that position. We are going to move towards your position, but we need time. We have just taken Dover, we are moving into Charleston. Soldier, do you hear me? Hold them off. Sigma out."

As I smashed in through the door, two shots from the Pride instantly flew over my shoulder, hitting a super mutant in the head and chest guarding the door. I never liked energy weapons too much, I preferred the feel of kick when a bullet flew out a minigun. I have to hand it to the Pride, however. They are the elite of the brotherhood, after all, and probably fell more super mutants than I have.

I shouted insane laughter, as bullets from Eugene started to flood down the corridor, taking out a couple smaller super mutants instantly, while the master and overlord took cover. I kept firing down the corridor, slowly advancing towards a metal table. As the Pride filtered through the corridor, I felt Charon come up behind me, and heard the familiar sound of a grenade click. I literally flung the minigun on the floor, pushed over the table, and ducked.

A huge green flash of light consumed the mutants not twenty feet in front of me, the master turning instantly into a pile of ash, while the overlord's leg lost most of its flesh, muscle showing, while its foot completely vanished from sight. A loud roar of "PAIN" Erupted from the abomination, clearly in pain, as it somehow managed to fire a volley of shots off. One made contact, glancing off of my power armour. I grunted, more with annoyance than pain. A plasma shot flew over my head, a good shot by Charon, who took to energy weapons as quick as a deathclaw. Charon smiled, which he did on rare occasions, although it fled almost instantly.

A load more mutants funnelled through the bunkers, led by three huge overlords. A frag grenade started to fly through, and towards us all.

"Fire in the hole!" Shouted Paladin Glade, as all of us dived to one side. Or so I thought, Jericho stood there, smiling. He then pulled a foot back, and kicked the grenade. An eerie quiet ensued, as Jericho then pulled out his assault rifle. A bullet shot then ricocheted around the bullet, and hit the case, splitting it. The explosion shook the bunker with such force, it felt as if the place was going to collapse. In fact, the left side of the wall showed the signs that it was going to fall in on itself, so we ran through it, quickly. There was an exit at the other side of the bunker, well, at least I hope. I sprinted, fuelled by the promise of the kill. I dashed through the gap, sweat dripping from my face, heart pumping, a feeling I relished. The thing that stopped me retiring. The beating of the drums in my head. _Bang. Bang. Bang. _I smiled, a frenzy roaring through me, I was a tiger, stalking my prey.

I jumped straight through the tiny gap, abandoning my minigun when I realised it wouldn't fit through the gap. I pulled out a combat knife from my side, while pulling out a pistol left on the floor. .32 caliber, seven bullets left in the magazine. A super mutant dashed towards me, only six bullets left, no five, no four. I shot the mutant in the face, making contact with three of the bullets. I lunged with my knife, stabbing the brute in its neck, attempting to push the giant over.

"PAAAIN_" _Shouted the brute. It fell to the ground, as the earth around me shook. I looked about, blood still surging through me, trying to find the other super mutants. I was crouching, holding out my pistol.

Without warning, _bang_, the wall behind me exploded.


	3. Chapter 3

**OK, I am happy (ish) with the first few chapters now, so they are no longer being updated (hopefully) until I finish the entire story. I've decided on my fonts and size, so no more aesthetic moderations unless I get some unreadable complaints. Say what you think about the story as you read it, I'd feel better knowing I was getting flamed at then complete silence…**

"Damn, this is my best suit…" Muttered Mister Burke, as he climbed through the whole in the wall behind him, slowly, one foot after the other. I smiled, as his hand hovered over his pistol, while casually looking around, as if nothing had happened.

"Paladin Glade blew up a whole in that debris, and there's just enough room for me to squeeze through. The rest should be coming soon. Let's make a move, shall we?"

I nodded in agreement, trying to calm myself. As I stood there, on guard from any other possible mutant threats, slowly the rest of our party trickled through. Jericho, Charon, Paladin Glade, then Sentinel Lyons walked through, with no sign of mutant attack. Sentinel Lyons pulled out a transmitter, before anyone could speak, and started talking into it. We looked on, idly, waiting for her to say something.

"There are no signs of super mutants above ground, so the rest must be hidden in here. There is only that one path, though, so they should all be held up there. We need to advance straight down the middle, and hope for a bit of luck, and then it shall all be over."

_Not much of a rallying speech, _I thought. I breathed in, then out, to relax. I walked forwards, into the next, and final, chamber of this tomb. I reloaded Eugene, which the ever obedient Charon brought through the whole in the wall, and looked around. I was not prepared for what I saw.

At first, all I could see was a dark, gloomy chamber, with typical earthy walls, and poor lighting, the most of which coming from my Pip-Boy. The brown rocks had some cracks in, but the main scar had a huge pile of sandbags, each charred and full of bullet holes.

I then noticed what stood behind the sandbags.

A squadron of men, seven or eight strong, stood, wearing intimidating black armour, apart from parts of the helmet, glowing yellow. From the back, the huge brutes seemed to be wearing a special type of power armour, with a blue hue on the back, instead of two standard tesla coils. The suits buzzed eerily, like a fly was flying about in your ear purely to aggravate and annoy.

I thought the mammoths noticed me, until I saw them moving weapons about. The crates seemed to be full of dozens of weapons, each must weigh in excess of a tonne each, yet they seemed to be lifting them with ease ; not even the brotherhood's most advanced armour helped them lift no more than a few hundred kilos.

[Quest Updated : Kill the Enclave in the Antechamber]

"_Shit. Holy. Fucking. Shit_" Jericho said, almost too loudly, as he, Mr Burke and a couple Paladins came in, I could not see who, how could you tell, they all look the same with the power armour on…

"Jericho, please, no need for that kind of language." Mr Burke said softly, irritatingly calmly in this situation. I almost swore back at him, until he stopped me. "I think we should leave, these people seem _slightly _more well equipped than you and I. Let's send in a few initiates or something to loosen them up a little, and hit them with something powerful enough to end them. I didn't plan on getting shot today."

"No, there isn't enough time. Let's just go in, guns blazing. They aren't looking at us, we can take a few of them out quite quickly." I was thinking about when to go in, and noticed that Charon was coming through again with his plasma rifle. I had a plan slowly forming, but that plan became redundant almost instantly.

"Music to my fucking ears!" Shouted Jericho, as he stood up, then shouted mindlessly, and pulled out his flamer, firing it directly into an enclave soldier. Normally, this would kill most of the foes we fought, but the heavily armoured enclave soldier just felt his helmet heat up, and only surprise knocked him off of his feet. Jericho, the idiot, just blew our cover, and all the well-trained, well-equipped, well-organized genocidists just noticed us.

"Fuck!" I shouted. Jericho was still burning the enclave soldier, so I pulled out my pulse pistol, knowing that the enclave power armour were almost invulnerable to bullets, and their new armour seemed even more powerful. It took almost an entire magazine of the pulse pistol, but eventually, I melted the head off of the enclave soldier. I barely ever use the pulse pistol, simply because of the rarity of the ammo, and realised there and then I had only two shots left of the thing.

Charon, on the other hand, was a lot more effective. Using his plasma rifle, he shot two of the enclave soldiers, one lost a leg, and was lying in the middle of the chamber, the other was grazed in the arm, nothing more than a superficial scratch on the arm.

By then, everyone was entrenched in cover, and a long war was brought about. Unfortunately, it was a war of attrition ; we did not have much ammo between us, and all that was about was huge stockpiles of assault rifles and ammo. Usually useful in a situation like this, but the bullets couldn't do any real damage, and we had to stay in cover.

I then felt my heart beat rapidly again. It beated, incredible speed, incredible power, unparalleled adrenaline started raging through me. My breath sped up, I was quick, I was in control, I felt like I could do anything. I breathed in, psyched up, ran for a loose laser rifle on the floor. Lasers flew around the room, I couldn't feel any of them. Damn, I noticed one hit me, on the arm, that'll hurt later. Picked it up, the rifle, checked if it worked, it was, perfect. I scouted the area, noticed a soldier, looked down the sight, took aim, breathed in, BANG. I shot, again and again, my target, that is, in the arm. He fell, quickly.

I then saw the Pride run into the antechamber from behind me, and saw Sarah Lyons in her distinctive blue hued armour, shouting orders. I smiled, she definitely commanded respect from her platoon. Two more enclave fell, but at the cost of three on our side that were breaking into the chamber. I noticed then that two were wearing recon armour, and another wasn't even in brotherhood gear ; a mercenary charmer outfit, not a Pride member.

The next few minutes were a blur. The enclave started retreating, two managed to escape outside. They tried to take off in a vertibird, but was shot down quickly by some heavy specialist with a tesla cannon, who got a thousand caps, from what I heard. I was feeling the effect of the plasma shot on my arm. I couldn't really move that much, and blacked out. Charon carried me out, into a makeshift infirmary, but woke up after a few minutes, and an injection of med-X later.

[Quest : Super Mutant Genocide Completed!]

**P.S I am looking for any beta reviewers for this story, so if anyone wants to be one, then it is an almost definite fine. And tell me what you think!**


	4. Chapter 4

_**Enclave Bunker Holotape**_

"Unit Alpha. Alpha? Dammit!" A crash of a fallen radio echoed.

"Don't worry, sir, we have sent dispatches around the north. We will take back the capital."

"We will. We cannot, no, will not fail this mission. We have invested too much time and effort into this. Come on, how is dover doing?"

"Sir, Dover is co-operating better than expected, we shall be operational within three weeks."

"Good. We need the power armour there. How is operation clementia going?"

"Sir, we are sending in the three hundred squadrons, a full regiment, ETA five minutes. Main targets are already under bombardment. Over."

"Good work, private. I'll have you promoted for this. Over and out."

"Sir."

I stopped listening to the tape, turning my Pip-Boy's holotape player off. Me, Charon, Jericho, Mr Burke, the pride… we all had the same look on our face. Impossible to describe ; a combination of trepidation, anxiety and alarm, we all remembered what the enclave could do, and what they would do if they launched an attack. We worked out that their regiments contained the healthy side of 2000 troops, which pre-war wouldn't have been much, but now… ten would be a large task force, fifty would be a large mercenary or caravan group, a hundred would be a town, and five hundred would be enough to secure most places, a thousand is a force to be reckoned with. But two thousand plus in the hands of the enclave could potentially kickstart a genocidal campaign.

"Shit. We aren't getting any responses from the Citadel and three dog's radio isn't online. We need to help them!"

"We need to go. Now." I said. We were not in a great position ; downtown DC doesn't have the weapon supply we need. If the holotape is accurate, then there is no point going to the citadel or GNR. We need to get an attacking force together, and take back some land. We'll need some more people to get together to attack them."

I started to think about where to go. There wasn't many places that the Enclave wouldn't have attacked. Megaton and Rivet City would have fallen, the Citadel won't likely remain standing, so that's not the best option, Paradise Falls and Evergreen Mills, even if not attacked by the Enclave, won't look too kindly on me or any brotherhood members walking in on their land. That just leaves…

"We need to make a move for Big Town. There are a few robots there, and it isn't a huge town. After that, we'll make a move south to Arefu. Then… then we'll figure out what to do next."

"Why are we going through to Big Town? That place barely holds ten people ; if we are going to stop the Enclave, we need to raise an army." Said Lyons, boldly. I knew she wanted to fight for the brotherhood in the Citadel, and maybe she could make a difference with the two hundred initiates, militia soldiers and paladins. Maybe isn't good enough.

[Robotics Expert] "There are a lot of robots in Big Town; since they started trading again, they have been buying broken sentry bots and mr. gutsy models and raising a defence force. They have a good twenty sentry bots, as well as ten or so gutsies and protectrons. Add that to the ten or so troops there, we got ourselves a good amount of troops to bolster our forces. We can also get all of the loose scavengers and wastelanders into our group, and prepare to fight back."

"That isn't a lot more help. If we do that, then the Citadel is definitely lost! If we go back, we can help. We have to go and defend the Citadel!"

"If the Citadel is definitely lost without the help we'd be sending in, then it's going to be lost without the initiates getting in the way."

"You don't know that!"

"Look. The Citadel can hold. It has enough people inside still to stop the Enclave. Adding any more people in will just complicate things. As far as we know, the Citadel has been razed, or taken over already, or even abandoned. We need to look towards what we can do to help everyone, and the best way to do that is get everyone together. We can all go towards Big Town, they have enough food and water to keep us all going. Then we can plan our next move. We need to run, discretion is the better part of valour."

Sarah stared at me, and I stared back. Neither of us averted our gaze for almost a minute, we both didn't want anything to do with each other right now, but we had to work together. For the time being, at least.

Sarah broke the quiet that surrounded us in the makeshift infirmary. "Let's go."


End file.
